Final Projects

Time for the big kahuna! Using the skills they learned from the color wheels, students had to create a finished composition.

Kindergarteners learned about the artist Piet Mondrian and how he used the primary colors to create an interesting composition. With Halloween coming up, students used a spider web instead of a grid to organize their primary colors. Kindergartners loved learning how to make spider webs and apparently went home and wouldn't stop drawing them! I also incorporated a little bit of math and we were counting all of the legs on spiders in groups of 2, 3 and 4.

First Graders studied the author/illustrator Eric Carle. Using his same process, students hand painted paper different colors to be used for their collage. Once dry, they cut different shapes out of their paper to combine to make their own Eric Carle animals. 

 

I love how colorful and unique these turned out!

Second Graders learned about warm and cool colors as they created wax resist fall landscapes. Using warm or cool colored crayons, they outlined their landscape. Than students painted over they crayon using the opposite (warm-cool, cool-warm). The resulting landscapes had amazing contrast and texture. 

Third Graders studied how Claude Monet's oil landscapes.  Students then chose a scene and used crayons and watercolors to used color to show the effect of light. 

Fourth Grade learned about Pop Art as they studied Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Students
then chose a piece of candy (just in time for Halloween) to draw 4 times for their Warhol style composition. Students had to play around with scale and orientation in order to find a pleasing composition for their drawing. Lastly, students experimented with complementary and analogous colors as they used oil pastels to color their drawings.

Fifth graders learned about observational drawing as they created a fall inspired still life. Then, students had to use complementary and analogous colors instead of white and black in order to add value to their drawings.






...and so we conclude color theory! Next stop, line

Color Wheels!

I love color theory and it shows by how deep we go into color right at the start of the year.

Kindergarteners dove right into painting as they finger-painted their color wheels. We tried to stay clean and used our imaginary brushes (1 finger only).













I tried out a new project with First Grade and I'm super excited with how amazing they came out. Students were instructed to draw 6 circles and turn them into birds. Once they were satisfied with their birds, students used blue, yellow and red payons to create a rainbow. The best part was when they added water to their secondary colored birds and watched the colors change.

Second and Third Graders made color wheel venn diagrams. I love how this project uses a concept they already know for a different purpose. They also make great references for color mixing.

Fourth Graders should already know how to mix colors so we worked on finding and identifying different values in magazines. Students collaged together the colors they found in rainbow order.

Fifth Graders worked together to create a class wide color wheel. Each table was in charge of a set of analogous colors

First Week of School

September

K-5
I'm very excited to begin this year. I have a year under my belt and a new classroom! For the introductory project we made our monochromatic portraits and patterns again. It's a great introduction to color theory and a way for me to see where all of my students are at.

The display is always so rewarding with this project and ensures I have a finished bulletin board early in the year.

Color Theory

        With just a taste for color theory, I wanted to dive right in and teach the students more explicitly and give them a chance to use this newfound knowledge. I chose a variety of alternative color wheels based on the results of a pre assessment. 
      
        Kindergarten and first graders are exploring the color wheel through fingerprints. Given only one color at a time, students are constructing finger-painted color wheels. For each wedge of the wheel, they solidly fill one in and make polka dots on either side. As they add more colors, the polka dots overlap creating new colors. Throughout the entire period you could hear shouts of "wow, green!!" or "I made orange!" 

      Second and Third graders made watercolor Venn Diagrams in order to explore the relationships between the primary colors. As they overlapped the primary colors, they gasped with excitement as the new color was revealed. Students witnessed first hand how secondary colors are made with 2 colors while tertiary colors are made with 3. 

    Fourth graders collaged abstract color wheels. Since they are already aware of how to mix colors, I wanted them to explore the relationship between colors as they constructed this abstract collage. Students had to evaluate the values of each color and where it belongs on their prism.

 

    Fifth graders collaborated to make a class sized color wheel, with each row with in charge of a primary color and it's analogous color. Students explore color as they debated which segment the color belongs on. We will use this color wheel as the class set and reference it throughout the year.

Students will use these personal color wheels as a tool for the duration of the year.

Prismatic Portraits and Patterns

Students had a blast finding creative solutions to adding details and visual interest with only one color. Here are some of the finished pieces by grade. 

K-1 

Students explored value as they created monochromatic patterns using a variety of media. 

1-5

Students explored value as they created a monochromatic portrait using a variety of media.